Dustin Johnson gets $125 million to join LIV Tour

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. Before we get to the wall of sound, and then we're going to talk with Brian Strauss of Sports Illustrated. He covers soccer and the men's national team. We'll play a friendly tonight against Morocco. Dennis has wagered on the US plus 110 to beat Morocco. I'll be watching this.

I love watching the men's national team. It's probably be about one third of the squad, maybe a little bit more, maybe 40% of the squad that we are likely to see at the World Cup. We will see Christian Polisic.

We will see Brandon Aronson, Walker Zimmerman, but I don't know how many others. I think we'll see Jedi. Wait, his name's Jedi? Obi-Wan.

I'm sorry. So many names running through Robinson. Jedi Robinson who plays left back. It's a great name.

So it is a great, you know, I don't even know how it happened, but he's Jedi. So we will see some of the players who will be most likely featured as first choice players for the US when they get to the World Cup in November, but it's a lot of guys who are really new into the system that we're going to see tonight. Well, so we'll talk to Brian Strauss about that. And then Eric Compton is playing at the Rex Hospital open up at Wakefield Country Club in North Raleigh. He is here. Corn Fairy Tour is in Raleigh this week.

So we'll talk to Eric Compton. He's got a great story for those people who don't know. Two-time heart transplant recipient playing on the PGA Tour. Well, Corn Fairy Tour, but spent about four or five years on the PGA Tour. Actually finished second at the US Open at Pinehurst back in 2014. So this state has given him good vibes.

Anyway, we'll talk to him in a little bit. Real quick to do Dustin Johnson. If you are just tuning in. Yesterday, the Live Golf Series announced their field, it's not a complete field, 42 of 48 players that will play in the inaugural Bonesaw Invitational in the Live Golf Series. That's next week in London. And it was announced that Dustin Johnson is part of the field. I mentioned this earlier, Dustin Johnson's, one of his sponsors, Royal Bank of Canada, RBC, is the title sponsor of next week's PGA Tour stop, the Canadian Open. Well, Dustin Johnson, I also mentioned that Graham McDowell was in the field and McDowell was also an RBC golfer. They've got about nine or 10 golfers that they sponsor and McDowell is part of that group.

Well, they were both fired by RBC. How big a deal is this? It's really just a big deal to Dustin Johnson and Graham McDowell, but obviously not enough of a big deal for them to not play in this event.

And here's why it's not a big deal. I can guarantee you this, Dustin Johnson did not make $125 million from RBC in Canada. And that's his contract with Live Golf. He's going to play the series.

That means all eight. And Dustin Johnson is going to make $125 million to do so. And that's why I said, I said earlier that this series, there is no reality.

It's not based on anything. The Saudi royal family has endless money. Endless.

PGA Tour cannot compete financially with what Dustin Johnson is going to make. $125 million. Yes. There you go.

So what will happen now? Is that a year? Or is that over a length of five?

I believe it's a year. Goodness. Because Dustin Johnson is going to sacrifice probably all other outside money. Now, Phil Mickelson's sponsors, I mean, like rats off a ship, vacated him. The same will happen to Dustin Johnson. But it won't matter when you're making $125 million to play eight events with no cut. So this is my point earlier.

If I were Jay Monahan, I would be nervous. And this becomes very simple. It becomes very simple. You have essentially forfeited your PGA Tour membership. You no longer remember the PGA Tour. End of discussion.

That's the way, if I'm Jay Monahan, that's the way it has to be. Otherwise, you know, half of the top 50 players in the world are going to go play this because the money is astronomical. And again, I said this in my Twitter thread earlier today. A lot of players won't care or believe that the general public doesn't care where the money comes from. But if the money, if you said this, if we substitute the Saudi royal family, we get rid of that, scratch that out and write South American drug cartel, would it change people's minds? That's my question. If this were underwritten by Coca-Cola, that would be one thing and it would be a viable option because there would not be anything attached to this.

But it's not, not to mention it's also not based in any economic reality. None. They don't care. They don't have a television contract.

Doesn't Josh just going into London to play golf for three days? Right. There you go. Time for time for it. That's that's the world we live in. Yeah. And this has been Greg Norman's obsession for 30 years to alter under about destroy the PGA Tour, but to exact a pound of flesh. I'm not saying it as when this store, when he became attached to this, I'm like, oh, of course, of course, this is a revenge tour. Greg Norman might end up winning this.

The wall of sound is a function of this studio. There's no doubt about it. All right. There's there's a lot to do.

We have Brian Strauss coming up in a couple of minutes, so we don't have a lot of time. So do you ever listen, Dennis, to the Draymond Green podcast? I catch some clips here and there.

They're actually very good because this part of volume it is. So they post stuff on Instagram and Twitter a lot. So I do catch some of this stuff. I do. I am a huge fan of Draymond Green's podcast. He he goes he drones on and on about something a little bit too long, but we all do.

Heck, I'm sure there are people in the car going, well, gold shut up about the live golf tour already. To me, it's a big story. So yesterday, the latest episode is actually a mashup, if you will, between Draymond Green and Colin Cowards podcast. Yeah, I believe they just basically appeared. They just joined podcast. Well, it's under his network, I believe. It's under the Colin Coward network.

Volume is cowards now. Well, that's that's it. I didn't know that because it's always under the Draymond Green show. And this one was the Colin Coward show that also appeared in Draymond Green's feed. So anyway, this is Green talking about K.D., Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. Kevin Durant was absolutely incredible in those finals runs. As you know, you watched it.

We all watched it. Kevin Durant was absolutely insane. Steph Curry got double teamed probably seven times the amount that K.D. did in a given series. OK, Kevin Durant disagreed with that on Twitter.

And look, I don't know what the end result is of that conversation. Seven times is probably a lot. I'll just say that I think that's probably an exaggeration. Wouldn't surprise me if it was more than Kevin Durant, but I think seven times is an exaggeration. So if Kevin Durant was, you know, if Steph Curry was double teamed 25 times, Kevin Durant was only double teamed what?

Three times for between three and four times. I don't find that to be logical. But the podcast did go on to talk about what Curry has meant to the Warriors. And it speaks to what we've been talking about for a few days, which is why do we have to do the silly and rank Durant versus Steph? And simply say what we're finding out is that especially with the lack of team success for Durant since leaving Golden State, and there are circumstances around that, that maybe the Warriors really have been about Steph along with Klay and Draymond as the core. And that what Durant was was an embarrassment of riches. They won a title with Harrison Barnes. Had they decided to keep Harrison Barnes, they probably would have won titles with that core. But they saw the opportunity to upgrade Harrison Barnes into Kevin Durant.

And who among us, if you could afford that, wouldn't have done it. So that's to me where the conversation probably needed to go. But we do silly things like ranking Steph Curry and Draymond and Kevin Durant. Whatever. Yeah.

All right. When we come back, men's national team plays tonight in Ohio, Cincinnati or Columbus. Not even sure. And we'll talk to Brian Strauss of Sports Illustrated. He's on site. It's a big, it's sort of a fact-finding mission for Greg Berhalter. We'll talk to Brian Strauss about it next. Adam Golden Studio with my man Coach Pete DeRuta with the Capital Financial Advisory Group.

We're talking retirement and coach. I'm a simple guy, but I like colors. Tell me how I can color code money and get ready for retirement. I like colors too. I like pictures. I like graphs.

I don't like just a bunch of words. And so what we try to do is we try to break down all those words on your statement, all those numbers into three colors. Red, green, yellow. People are amazed when they come in and most of their money is in the red category. Red means high horsepower potential. It also means high loss potential. So you have to, it's a give and take. You can be willing to do that or that. Yellow means liquid money. You can get it anytime.

It's not going to earn anything. Green gives you safe growth, but also gives you lifetime income. So as we get closer to retirement, we need some green accounts. We need the green zone, we call it. And Baghdad green zone was important. Green zone's important for you too. The next 10 people, Adam, it's a thousand dollar value. Golden ticket we're going to put together for you. Your very own total plan that has a green zone. It's a traffic light. I hope it's green for you.

800-661-7383 or text ADAM to 21000 for Coach Pete DeRuta. The United States is qualified for the World Cup. That's a big deal.

Now all we have to do is wait, I don't know, six months to actually play it. In Qatar, Brian Strauss, Sports Illustrated, covers the men's national team, covers the sport of soccer. We've got a lot of stuff to discuss. He joins us from Columbus as the U.S. is going to set to play Morocco in a friendly tonight.

7 o'clock I believe on ESPN2. We're a long way. There aren't that many of these matches left. Greg Berhalter has what, like four in this window and then two more in Europe in September. And that's it to get ready for this. Yeah, it's a long time but it's a short time.

It's six months or so but like you said it's six games. Actually we're in Cincinnati. Why did I say Columbus?

My fault. One of three because Ohio has three cities and they all start with C. I guess you throw Canton in there. And they're both on the Columbus' traditional national team sort of home base.

Anyway, I came to the right place. I'm in Cincinnati. It's a deceptive amount of time and deceptive kind of calendar because you've got these four games over the next two weeks, then there's two more in September and then that's it. And it's not like the whole team's together for these four games, right? You've got a lot of guys who were out, some guys who were injured, some guys who were resting, guys who were missing for different reasons. So you're not going to, this is not like a dress rehearsal for the World Cup team because we still don't know who's going to be on it. Right, and we're such a long way away and we're missing, as you said, Surgenio Dest is not there, Gio Reyna is not there, Miles Robinson not there, and I think anybody that has studied and watched the qualifying process, you have to believe that those three guys, if they're not part of the first choice group, a guy like Reyna is certainly in the mix to be a starter.

Dest and Miles Robinson seem to be locks, although Robinson would be a lock, except the Achilles injury that he suffered. So there are some things that we're going to have to piece through here. So what can we learn about the men's national team based on what happens tonight in Ohio and then in Kansas City on Sunday against Uruguay? I think there was some hope that a striker, a number nine, a finisher, you know, someone might sort of get into a groove and kind of stick a claim to that spot, but that position, like any sort of, you know, finishing position, same is true in hockey, like, you know, your form can come and go. So just because a guy, you know, hits a vein of form now doesn't mean it's going to be there in November, but Jesus Ferreira from SC Dallas is going to get the start tonight.

We'll get a shot. Otherwise, I think you're looking at some of the some of the guys who are benefiting from some of those absences and have gotten a call up, you know, that there is precedent in American soccer history for this, you know, five or six months out from a World Cup. You know, someone just kind of coming from nowhere and really establishing himself and making the team, you know, so you've got, you know, Malik Tillman, who just filed a switch from Germany. He's a Bayern Munich player, a midfielder, Haji Wright, who is a striker who was bouncing around Europe and finally wound up in Turkey and started scoring goals. A couple center backs, Cameron Carter Vickers and Eric Palmer Brown, who have a chance maybe to fill in for that spot vacated by Robinson.

So I think there's some intrigue around around players like that. And then there's a lot of these other guys, Pulisic and McKenny and Aronson, who they're on the team, you know, Tim Weah, you know, they're on the team and you just kind of hope that they, you know, they get together, they gel, they enjoy their time. They play a couple of games and then they get some rest over the summer. We'll talk about Weston McKenny in a second. And I think Greg Berhalter said, the coach, that he would get McKenny in about 20 minutes and that by the end of this window, he hopes that McKenny will be able to go the full 90.

That's pretty quick to go from 20 to 90 in two weeks, but we'll see. Let me tell you how much energy that guy has. So the last two days here in Cincinnati, we were doing kind of these roundtables with all the players.

Every player available, right? He comes in 15, 20, 25 minutes, all the journalists that are here asking questions and like, this is our chance to talk to these guys before they disperse for the summer, before we go to Qatar. McKenny was so amped that he was like bouncing around the room, pretending to be a reporter and he was sitting in another guy's roundtables and asking questions.

And he did it to three or four different people. Like he couldn't, you can't contain the energy coming from this man. And so he's ready. Like he's just, he's an effervescent, you know?

So it was just pretty funny kind of watching him kind of do his shtick. Is he their best player? He was, I think, when he got hurt.

That's an interesting question, right? I mean, he was the most effective player for this team. I would put it that way before he broke his foot. He is just such a force. He is such a two-way offensive, defensive, you know, you know, he gets involved, he tackles, he harasses, he wins the ball. He penetrates. He knows how to just pop up in the penalty area and get a shot on goal. He scored against Mexico. He's deadly on set pieces. He can just do more things than anyone else on the team. And so when he's plugged in, he can be the most impactful player.

Well, let me, we're talking Brian Strauss's Sports Illustrated. Men will take on Morocco tonight in a friendly men's national team. Trying to just kind of stay together until we get to the toward the end of November in Qatar. Christian Polisic went through a time where he wasn't really part of the mix at Chelsea, but at the end of the season, he was and he was effective. How much do we carry over what he did toward the end of the season at Chelsea and what he might be to the men's national team? He's a tough guy to read.

So, but I'm going to guess right after sort of a bunch of camps and the whole qualifying process. He seemed to be in a good mood yesterday. First of all, when Wendy, he spent some time answering our dumb questions. He loves being on the national team like, like, like, like he legitimately this is his favorite thing to do. It feels like and he he loves being around this group. He's energized by it. He gets confidence from it and and I really think that he is getting better about turning the page when he comes into this into this setting and environment where he supported where he's appreciated where he's, you know, you know, everyone has has faith in him. And I and I think that, you know, he's not thrilled with the situation at Chelsea.

Everyone knows it. He would not commit his future to Chelsea yesterday when he was asked about it. Although we did say he met some of the new owners and sort of enjoyed interacting with them and and, you know, had had a good impression. But but I think there's something about this group in this environment where he's able to sort of push some of that frustration aside and flourish. And so I don't think it's going to be I don't think that's going to be an issue, but it has been a very long emotional taxing season, a ton of ups and downs from winning the Club World Cup to getting benched and back and forth. And I think he probably does need a break. So I think that'll be, you know, he's probably mentally and physically somewhat tired, but I don't think his confidence or enthusiasm has waned at all. I could ask you a thousand questions really just about Christian Polisic, but we don't have time for all of that.

And there's so many other things I want to get to and we won't have time for most of those. But I am curious about this Brian Strauss. We know Zach Stephan had some some personal issues. So he is not with this group and Matt Turner was named the the starter for tonight. I believe Turner is right now playing with the New England Revolution, but is going to go to Arsenal to back up Aaron Ramsdale. Right now the United States doesn't have a keeper who is a starter anywhere in like in their top four or five. The only one is the 18 year old is playing for the Chicago Fire and I don't know that he's going to get ahead of all these other guys. What can they do if they don't have a keeper who's getting regular time?

There's nothing they can do. It's a completely bizarre and unprecedented situation and you can't fault any of the individuals for the career choices they've made. You can't make a career decision based on a one month tournament that happens every four years, right? Matt Turner has to make this move. He has to take this chance. Obviously, just simply the training at Arsenal will be at a level that he hasn't experienced before in which you hope would make him better.

But you do need games, right? There's a diminishing returns there, right? Zach Stephan doing that for three years may have eroded his game. So yeah, there's no answer to that. They've got to desperately hope one of these guys emerges and find some time and find some form by November and we're just going to all have to kind of wait and see how that unfolds. It's going to be a challenge for Greg Berhalter and the staff to work through that issue. Definitely different from us, right? For decades, goalie was the one spot where the US was like, alright, we're good. And now it's a bit different. The other thing is that Ethan Horvath and Nottingham Forest just got promoted and he's not the first choice keeper there.

My fear is that because England is in the same group that these teams are going to keep our guys down. Oh, that's fascinating. I hadn't thought of that.

I'm making that up, but whatever. A little gamesmanship. That's a very concat cap thing to do by the English. That would be top here gamesmanship there. Brian Strauss, you're the best.

SI.com. Yeah, you are. How are we doing post-how's everything in Canes country?

I'll let you know in a couple of weeks. You're the same. You and I can commiserate as our teams didn't get well. I guess the Capitals went about as far as maybe you expected. You guys should have won that series, dude.

Three three blown leads. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it was it was there for the taking, but that's, you know, 2018 was the outlier for us, right? So so we're we've reverted to form and, you know, I appreciate them perhaps freeing me from the distraction during a during a busy national team summer. So we'll look at it that way. We'll talk again very soon.

Brian Strauss. I appreciate it. Yeah. All right. See you, man.

All right, believe it or not. I have one more thing for Brian Strauss and we'll get to it in the wall of sound in a little bit when we come back. Eric Compton playing in the Rex Hospital open up at Wakefield Country Club in North Raleigh has a very interesting story.

In that he's a two time heart transplant recipient. Talk to him about that playing at the at the Corn Ferry tour and whatever else comes up with Eric Compton next. June 19th, 2006. But it all started May 6, 1997, with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina.

It's a story of transition of heartbreak of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now, find Canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcast. Eric Compton with the Corn Ferry tour up at TPC Wakefield. I think it's actually Wakefield Country Club now.

Corn Ferry tour and the Rex Hospital open will start on Thursday. First of all, welcome back to the area. I know you've been here before you finished in the well, I guess sort of this area. Yeah. Yeah.

Tied for second at the U. S. Open back in 2014 when Mark and Martin Keimer lapped the field. So I guess the state of North Carolina has some positive vibes for you. Yeah, actually, you know what, that's that's a good reminder going in North Carolina, because when I think of Pinehurst, I think of it kind of being far away from from Raleigh, but which which it really isn't. So I'm actually going to hop on a plane here in a few hours and get up there, practice a little bit and have a program day tomorrow. So looking forward to playing the golf course. It's always a nice track and and people.

They're very warm and welcoming. Yeah. Look, I'm not saying that I want you to be in the field again next year because we'd like it all to work out well. And you get back on the PGA Tour, but it's supposed to move to Raleigh Country Club next year, which wouldn't be a bad spot to just play a casual round of golf as it's we always we always joke.

It's an old Donald Ross design as though there are any new Donald Ross designs Eric Compton here. You have a very interesting story. I want to spend a couple of minutes on for those people who don't know before we get to actual golf a two-time heart transplant recipient. So let me just ask has your health right now and how are things going? Yeah, my health is really good right now.

I'm quite a bit out on my second transplant and doing healthy. I spent a lot of time now with my daughter who's 13. So we play a lot of golf after school and she's getting ready to Finish her exams this week. So hopefully she'll be on the road and travel with me a little this summer, but my health is good. I mean, I same road, same routine, take medication in the morning and at night. Try to get a lot of rest so It can be challenging with a schedule with A lot of flights and rental cars and hotels always been a You know, a juggle, but I've been doing it for such a long time. So I'm used to it by now and hopefully I have some good golf left. Eric Compton is with us here on the Adam Gold show. You had about four year run where you're on the PGA Tour.

He finished in the top hundred a few times in the FedEx Cup and see you kept your card. What was different then as it is opposed to now I see you still hitting it out there. You get it out there about 300 on average. So there's obviously there's there's enough distance there.

So, although that might not be very far these days. I don't know how much time we have For you, Eric. I got all the time for you. Well, I mean a lot of I think it's difficult, you know, I got my card when I was around 30 and I had played a bunch of PGA events. And I had to do that on exemptions and things after my second transplant Petra was born and I was newly, you know, newly married and things were exciting. But as everybody knows, raising a family and traveling on the road. And then with my medical condition took, you know, took a big toll on me and and Unfortunately, I ended up getting divorced and and then dealing with not feeling that great on the road. It took a big toll on me after the U.S. Open. It was there was a lot a lot of stuff going on off the golf course.

And as you can see with a lot of the top players, you know, 26, 27, 28 as as they get married and have kids. It becomes a lot more challenging because you're not the number one priority anymore. And and it took some time to juggle.

We have a beautiful daughter and and she's you know, she's my number one priority. And I ended up getting remarried and I have a beautiful stepdaughter and she's on her way to college. So I learned a lot. I learned a lot about myself and and how to handle a professional career off of the golf course.

And then and then dealing with my medical stuff. So there was there was a lot of stuff going on. And then the last couple of years, I feel like I've really played just as good as I did when I was on the tour. It's just that the players and everybody are better.

I mean, the corn berry tours is so underrated. I mean, if you look at Stadi Scheffler asked me two years ago in the locker room after we played because he knew I had a lot of experience on the tour. He said, what do you think I need to do to play on the tour? And I looked at him and I said, absolutely nothing. I said, within within 18 months of you playing on the PGA Tour based upon me playing with Tiger, Phil, Ricky Fowler, all the best players in the world.

I said, I think you'll be in the top 10 in the world. And he kind of looked at me to shovel. And now he's number one in the world. And I saw him yesterday or not yesterday, but three days ago at a colonial because I played colonial.

Right. And so I walked up on the range and I said, I told you, he kind of looked at me and he had that look in his eye, like all number one players in the world do, like almost an aloofness because they're getting bombarded. And yeah, it's like it's almost like you become possessed.

I think I think it's just such a fine line. The players are so good now. And you got to get in that playoff system or get a win on the corn for you to get back on the PGA Tour. I just I just think that there's so many great players all around the world right now. Before I let you go, I don't want to run out of time before asking you this. Eric Compton is with us.

Corn Ferry Tours, Rex Hospital, open Thursday through Sunday at Wakefield Country Club up in North Raleigh. I'm just curious your thoughts as and I don't think this is an insult because as a professional golfer, you're among the greatest on the planet at doing what you do. But sort of a rank and file golfer, what are your thoughts on the live series and what it's setting out to do? You know, I think that in the broad scheme of things, I think the more you give playing opportunities to people around the world, there is growth in the game. I think that's a very touchy subject because. Everybody wants to look at it from and dissect different parts of the world and help help the ethics of things are.

But if you look at sports in general. Anytime you're giving opportunities for players. To play and make a living, it's it's a good thing, I think. But it comes with its challenges and I'm not one to.

To know all the answers, I do know that. The PGA Tour does a hell of a job on the PGA Tour, and I think that having played on the corn fairy tour as equally as amount as the PGA Tour, that if anything, it only enhances the opportunity for competition for better for better opportunities for younger players coming out. And I think that there has been a little bit of a. Staleness to.

The theater tour, the PGA Tour, if you compare the growth of what the PGA Tour is today as it was 20 years ago. So that has to change a little bit, I think. That there's there's there's growth in every direction for all all all of the tours, so we'll see what happens. And unfortunately. It's going to make.

Got the guys going different directions, but I think in a whole, it's going to be better for the game. Eric Compton, I wish you all best. I hope you do really well here in Raleigh coming up this week. And I hope we see you out on the big tour very soon. Appreciate your time.

Best to you and hope you have a good summer with your daughter. You got it. Thanks, guys.

It's cool to catch up there. Compton real, real quick. We recorded that yesterday. Otherwise, I would have asked for his reaction to Dustin Johnson. Twenty five million dollar contract.

That is stunning. Still waiting for details on that tomorrow on the program. Rex Hoggard of Golf Channel will have more for us about this. I again, I know that maybe you don't think it's a big deal. It's a big deal. If you watch professional golf, this is a big, big deal. Remember, there's no salary cap for the live series. This will be common. And as Avril points out on Twitter, now we know why our gas is five bucks a gallon.

Ah, if they were only related. This is the Adam Gold Show. Off of the crossbar and the Hurricanes have won the Stanley Cup. June 19th, 2006. But it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now. Find Canes 25th Anniversary wherever you get your podcasts.